On the afternoon of June 3, a man drowning in a Hot Sulphur Springs Resort & Spa pool was rescued, thanks to first responders, staff and brave bystanders — including Richard “Stretch” Rapp, who was visiting Grand County on a bicycle trip.

This summer, Rapp traveled from his home in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to Colorado. He is an amputee and uses prosthetic legs. After taking the Amtrak to Fraser, he used his mountain bike, wheelchair and skateboard to get to Hot Sulphur Springs.

When he arrived to a nearby campground, he had little idea he’d be in the right place at the right time to help save a man’s life.

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“He was dissipating into the skies,” Rapp said of the drowning victim, another Grand County visitor named Tashi Dhondup. “He was going to see his maker — whatever you want to call it — something greater than us. And I said, not today. I pulled him back from the skies.”

Man rescued after around three minutes underwater

Deb Schaffer, the general manager of Hot Sulphur Springs spa, is extremely thankful for everyone at on scene who helped bring the victim back from the brink of death. Schaffer the man for underwater approximately three minutes.

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“He literally saved the guy’s life,” she told Sky-Hi News of Rapp’s actions.

Rapp performed CPR on the victim to try to get him breathing again, after several people pulled him from the deep end of a pool.

Schaffer explained how the unexpected incident first began. The victim, his family and friends were visiting the spa. The area has a number of pools, including one with a deep end.

“It does have a big drop off at the end, where the deep end starts, and he just walked straight ahead. There was no splashing. There was no nothing,” she recalled.

As the man slid down the drop off into the water, his family closest to him was unable to help him, because they couldn’t swim.

A member of Dhondup’s family ran over to try to get him out of the water. Two others on scene also rushed to help — spa employee Jane Dudson and a “mystery man” who jumped over the fence in the pool area.

“He had his jeans off before he even got to the pool and jumped in,” Schaffer said. “Then he just vanished. I don’t know what happened to him.”

Dudson also dove into the water to reach Dhondup, coming back up for air before trying again. Together, they all got the man, who appeared unconscious, out of the pool and to the side.

As this was happening, Rapp heard the commotion, then leapt into action from a distance away. His prosthetic legs were already off.

“I started leap frogging without my legs on, clearing steps three feet at a time,” he said. “I could see the people around him were panicked … I knew he needed more help than probably what other people would know to do.”

As he made his way there, he screamed out “code red, code red,” to let others know there was an emergency.

He swam across a pool, where someone helped lift Dhondup out, and he finally made it to the scene of victim. Rapp has a lot of knowledge with first aid and rescues, from his time riding bikes and being in the wildnerness, he explained.

“I assessed the situation,” he explained. “Maybe if I can get there, I can pull him back from the skies, because he was getting ready to go see the skies.”

He took over from Dhondup’s panicked friend who was attempting CPR without success. He cleared the airway, performed chest compressions and gave him a hard breath in. Dhondup vomited, but Rapp presevered with mouth-to-mouth as they waited for first responders.

“They had a great response time here,” Stretch said. “Without them, I don’t think we could have got him going, because once they showed up, they had the right medical equipment.”

In addition to four EMS ambulances, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office and Hot Sulphur Springs Parshall Fire Protection District arrived to assist.

“I was able to keep the family calm with hugs,” said Rapp, adding that there was a language barrier.

He communicated with one member of the group who spoke the best English, explaining that it’s important to speak to Dhondup, including repeating his name to him.

“It took all of us, there was other people,” he recounted. “Sometimes just saying someone’s name as they’re going to the light brings them back … when somebody’s in the hospital dying, if you talk to them and hold their hand, sometimes they don’t die.”

As they spoke Dhondup’s name, first responders used a ventilator, then got ready to load him into an ambulance.

He was transported to Middle Park Health. According to Schaffer, Dhondup was awake and coherent shortly after being admitted to the hospital.

He was then transferred on to Lutheran Hospital in Lakewood, where he is expected to make a full recovery.

“I’m trying to thank my higher power for everything that happened,” Rapp said. “I’m so thankful he did not die in front of his family.”

He feels grateful for all the people that helped Dhondup.

“He was faded. Without all of us, that man would not be here today,” he said. “I mean all us — the sheriffs, the ambulance people, whoever showed up today, everybody played a role like they’re supposed to and it worked out.”

Stretch also expressed gratitude to Schaffer for putting him up in a hotel near the spa. Previously, he was camping at the pioneer campground in Hot Sulphur. At the time of the drowning, he said that Schaffer was hysterical, so he hugged her and tried to calm her.

“I said, ‘we’re going to be okay,’ and we were okay,” he recounted. ” … It was such a beautiful, miraculous day.”  

Family and friends say community’s selflessness saved victim

A day after the drowning, June 4, Sky-Hi News spoke to a family member and friend of Dhondup about the harrowing experience.

Both said they want to express their thanks for Rapp, for the quickness of the first responders and everyone who helped — but that their emotion feels greater than the simple word ‘thanks.’

They hope to express to the rescuers their immense gratitude for the selfless actions that saved Dhondup. They added that he is expected to be discharged from the hospital and back home with his family in Longmont by Friday.

As for Stretch, his journey to Grand County is to enjoy life to the fullest while he is able to embrace the outdoors. He has a condition where he may only have a couple years left on earth. A friend who has ALS encouraged him to take the trip. On Wednesday, he attended opening day for the trestle bike park at Granby Ranch.

He added that back home in Pittsburg, he helps people experiencing houselessness through the nonprofit organization Bridge to the Mountains.

“I’m very thankful that I do outreach in Pittsburg,” he said. “It’s not really outreach, it’s helping friends who live under bridges.”

He also assists individuals who are disabled, to ensure “they can move through life and are not left behind.” He added that while he is in Grand County, his hope is to help the community however he can.